urgent

Forms

urgent m or n (feminine singular urgentă, masculine plural urgenți, feminine/neuter plural urgente)^[1] The 19th century also wrote urginte: „necesetatea urginte de un organ naționale generale” “the urgent need of a general national organ” (1866).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French urgent, with Latin urgens (“pressing”) as a second source.^[4][3][2] DER gives Italian urgente and the French word, and the neologism dictionaries add the Italian word too.^[5][6] The Latin word is the present participle of urgeō (“to push, press”).^[7][8] French had borrowed it from Late Latin in 1340.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DLR's first citation is from the French–Romanian vocabulary of Poenaru, Aaron and Hill.^[2] MDA2 dates it from Aristia's translation of Plutarch (1857).^[3] In Kogălniceanu it is the “urgent” emancipation of the peasants of the Principalities.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word kept the meaning “not to be put off”, of needs, business and measures, and is often used as an adverb: a pleca urgent “to leave at once”.^[4][2] Costinescu glossed it in 1870 as something that suffers no delay.^[9] A special sense is the telegramă urgentă, sent first for an extra fee.^[3][10] The DLR gives the regional synonym sorgoș.^[2]

Timeline

• 1840s – the French–Romanian vocabulary of Poenaru, Aaron and Hill.^[2]
• 1857 – Aristia's translation of Plutarch.^[3][2]
• 1866 – the spelling urginte.^[2]
• 1870 – Costinescu's dictionary.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. urgent: needing to be dealt with at once, admitting no delay; grabnic: o problemă urgentă.^[4][3][1]
2. (of telegrams) Sent with priority, to arrive sooner.^[4][3]

Adverb

1. At once, without delay: Trebuie să vii urgent.^[3][11]

Related words

• urgență
• French urgent

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. urgent
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1389
4. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1175
5. ^ Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. urgent
6. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. urgent
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 665
10. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 592
11. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. urgent